CHART ATTACK! #13: 1/5/91
Hello, everyone, and welcome back as we begin a new year of CHART ATTACK! In truth, I only really missed one week, as the Billboard charts don’t publish the last week of the year. Yeah, yeah, no excuse, I know. So let’s cut right to the chase, and check out the charts from January 5, 1991!
10. I’m Your Baby Tonight – Whitney Houston Amazon iTunes
9. The First Time – Surface Amazon iTunes
8. Sensitivity – Ralph Tresvant Amazon iTunes
7. Love Will Never Do (Without You) – Janet Jackson Amazon
6. Impulsive – Wilson Phillips Amazon iTunes
5. Tom’s Diner – D.N.A. Featuring Suzanne Vega Amazon iTunes
4. High Enough – Damn Yankees Amazon iTunes
3. From A Distance – Bette Midler Amazon iTunes
2. Because I Love You (The Postman Song) – Stevie B. Amazon iTunes
1. Justify My Love – Madonna Amazon iTunes
10. I’m Your Baby Tonight – Whitney Houston Nearly three years had passed between Houston’s second and third albums (brilliantly titled, respectively, Whitney Houston and Whitney). The first two had been massive, massive hits – her second album was the first by a female artist to debut at #1, and featured a then record-breaking seven #1 hits – and the pressure was on Houston to not only deliver a matching third album, but an album that featured more of an R&B flavor than her lightly-criticized previous two pop records. Enlisting L.A. Reid and Babyface to produce the entire record, I’m Your Baby Tonight definitely had an R&B feel (albeit light R&B), and the title track did reach #1 – thankfully for Houston – but the record didn’t match expectations, with only three singles reaching the Top 10. Luckily, Houston bounced back the following year with The Bodyguard soundtrack. Time will tell if 2007 becomes another comeback year.
9. The First Time – Surface Talk about light R&B: it doesn’t get any lighter than this, although to be fair, it’s no different from the other R&B songs on the charts (including this top 10) at the time. I don’t even recall this song being a hit. The only Surface song I remember is "Shower Me With Your Love," also in the "let’s sound really sensitive and maybe we’ll get laid" vein. You wanna hear sensitive? Check out the lead line in the chorus: "The first time I looked into your eyes, I cried." Now picture Ol’ Dirty Bastard releasing that as a single. Still, let’s give credit where credit is due: "The First Time" stayed at #1 for two weeks, which beats out "I’m Your Baby Tonight."
8. Sensitivity – Ralph Tresvant Speaking of sensitive…damn, these songs are R&B Mellow Gold, fer chrissakes. Despite having a fantastic voice, Tresvant has been one of the least successful New Edition graduates. (That’s him singing lead on songs like "Candy Girl" and "Cool It Now.") Clearly unsure about what success might follow outside New Edition, hitmakers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis essentially held Tresvant’s hand through his eponymous solo debut. They did great work, as "Sensitivity" peaked at #4 and topped the R&B charts. Two other R&B charters followed, but nobody could accuse the man of being prolific: he released his second album in 1994, and 12 years passed until the release of the third.
7. Love Will Never Do (Without You) – Janet Jackson We spoke briefly of the massive success of Rhythm Nation 1814 back in CHART ATTACK! #6, when we covered the lead-off single, "Miss You Much." This time, we’re covering the end of this specific reign, as this single was her seventh and final top-five hit from the album. While it seems second-nature to view Jackson as a sex symbol, remember that in this point of her career, she was still an innocent. Her previous album included the abstinence ballad "Let’s Wait Awhile," and RN 1814 was an album that spoke more of societal problems within the world. I don’t think anybody would hear this song and think it’s "sexy" – it’s more "fun" like previous hits "When I Think Of You" and "Escapade" – but yet, it became the first time she was publicly viewed as an artist embracing her sexuality. You can thank the late, great photographer Herb Ritts for that one, who created a beautiful video featuring both sides of her persona – the fun and the sexy.
6. Impulsive – Wilson Phillips Let’s give it up for Wendy Wilson – the hottest member of the group, IMHO – singing lead on this one. Oh, let’s also give it up for yet another Wilson Phillips song that’s a terrible earworm. What, am I the only one who heard this one too many times and wound up singing it without realizing it? Just be thankful I’m not offering it for download. You’d be pissed. "Impulsive" peaked at #4, but I think the only reason it didn’t hit #1 is because the buying public liked the blonde one better.
5. Tom’s Diner – D.N.A. Featuring Suzanne Vega (download) I pride myself on knowing this song well before the remix became a hit. Around the time of its initial release (on Vega’s 1987 release Solitude Standing), a syndicated radio program entitled "Kids America" would play it all the time. I was a big "Kids America" fan, who would often play the parody version "Jeannie’s Diner" immediately following Vega’s version.
The D.N.A. version was a mashup of "Tom’s Diner" and the drum sample from Soul II Soul’s "Back To Life," and was an unofficial (and illegal) underground release. As the song gained popularity, A&M (Vega’s record label) made an unprecedented move: instead of suing the artists for copyright infringement, they embraced the version and released it on their label. It’s hard to imagine that a record label could be so fucking smart, isn’t it? The D.N.A. version went on to become a massive hit, peaking here at #5 and essentially becoming Vega’s biggest-selling hit. In 1991, Tom’s Album was released, containing 13 tributes to the tune. You can hear a number of them in Coverville 131: Tom’s Coverville.
There are a couple of additional interesting facts about "Tom’s Diner," which I won’t get into here, but can be found via the following links: Tom’s Diner Day, which uses scary, stalker-like brilliant deduction to conclude that the song must have been written on November 18, 1981, and Suzanne Vega: Mother of the MP3, which reveals that audio engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg used "Tom’s Diner" repeatedly to fine-tune the audio quality involved in the MP3 compression scheme.
4. High Enough – Damn Yankees (download) YES! (pumps fist triumphantly.) I loved this song from the minute I heard it – and when I heard it, I knew nothing about the group or its history. You know, how Damn Yankees was a supergroup consisting of Jack Blades from Night Ranger, Tommy Shaw from Styx, Ted Nugent from…um…"Wang Dang Sweet Poontang," and some random drummer. Okay, it was Michael Cartellone, who now plays with Skynyrd and apparently once recorded with Freddie Mercury (which is interesting, since most of Freddie’s solo stuff used drum machines, but whatever). But back to the point: I didn’t know anything about them. Here’s what I thought as I eagerly plunked down my money for the cassingle:
1) Great verse!
2) Wow, great lead-in to the chorus, too!
3) Awesome chorus!
4) Hey, isn’t this Nelson?
5) (Looking at Shaw’s haircut) This IS Nelson!
The late ’80s/early ’90s were the defining years of the rock power ballad (the monster ballad, if you will), and "High Enough" is a classic. It’s got acoustic guitar, a great duet vocal, strings, and an anthemic chorus. Plus, there’s The Nuge rippin’ it on electric guitar. And what about that video? Nearly everybody’s in sunglasses (except the drummer, because who cares) that are unique yet equally unfashionable today, and there’s big hair. Shaw’s perm (with bangs!) front and center, y’all!
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I love Nuge in the video. All he cares about is chewing gum. You can tell he’s not behind the project, he just wants to rock. (Hmmm…kind of like Shaw after Kilroy Was Here?) There’s also some plot to the video, but I ignored it. Also, I was blinded by Nuge’s ski glasses.
I like saying Nuge. Nuge, Nuge, Nuge.
Thanks to a great song, a frequently-played video and some patriotism surrounding the band due to the Gulf War, "High Enough" peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was enough for Shaw to say "Take THAT, you Styx pussies!"…at least until "Show Me The Way" matched it 2 months later.
On a side note, did anybody go to see Charlotte’s Web? I hear Tommy Shaw has a cameo. I’m serious. It’s on the Internet. It must be true.
3. From A Distance – Bette Midler If you’re around your late 20s/early 30s, then there’s a good chance you sang this in your school chorus. What? You didn’t? Oh, lucky you. Because we sang this one for what seemed like months and months. A "From A Distance" marathon. (Mike, who shared in the suffering, insists we also did "Just Once," but I don’t remember it – which is a shame, because that would have rocked.) This was quite a successful time for Midler, as I’m sure you remember: "Wind Beneath My Wings" (a cover) was her first #1 in 1989, and "From A Distance" (a cover) reached #2 in the last few weeks of December. Like "High Enough" before it, it was released at the perfect time: wartime! Hooray!
2. Because I Love You (The Postman Song) – Stevie B. You’re forgiven if you don’t remember Stevie B. But I bet you remember this song. I was going to offer it for download, but it’s three minutes of your life you’d never have back, and I don’t want you to blame me for that. You can listen to a sample, as always, in the Top 10 above.
For a man with only one real smash hit to his name, Stevie B. has certainly been prolific: he’s had 13 songs in the Hot 100, including three Top 20 singles. I still maintain, however, that if you’re going to remember anything, it’s this short, sappy pop/R&B ballad. The first line of the song is: "I got your letter from the postman just the other day/and so I decided to write you this song," which apparently was enough for him to subtitle it "(The Postman Song)." The postman, the letter, or the U.S. mail get no further mentions. I don’t understand people sometimes.
1. Justify My Love – Madonna This song? Nothing special. It was written by Lenny Kravitz, Ingrid Chavez and Madonna, although Chavez did not have a credit at the time, supposedly since she was having an affair with Kravitz. (Chavez later sued and received a substantial out-of-court settlement as a result). It has a good beat, and it’s interesting in that Madonna speaks the entire lead vocal, but I don’t think it’s anything spectacular.
However, certainly you remember the controversy over the video being too hot for MTV. One of the few high-profile videos banned by the station, certainly it was the MTV publicity (as well as an appearance on "Nightline") that helped propel this to the top of the charts. Madonna did the smartest thing possible, and released it as a video single. I remember the video being stocked at our local corner store, but on the top shelf, above the porn magazines. Well, if you’ve never seen it, now’s as good a time as any.
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My favorite version of the video still remains the Saturday Night Live "Wayne’s World" version, which I remember seeing live, and being astounded that they actually landed Madonna for the vignette. I still think it’s amusing, although if you haven’t seen it before, you’ll have to forgive the dated catchphrases.
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And that brings us to the end of another Billboard-tastic week! Have a great weekend, and see you next week for another CHART ATTACK!
January 5th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Amazing that as much as the chart head I am, and especially considering 1991 I was even more so, I can barely remember any of these songs other than the mighty Damn Yankees and Madonna. What a shit week!
January 5th, 2007 at 9:20 am
JT representing So. Fla. here – we pride ourselves on Stevie B. He’s our boy. "Spring Love" anyone? Admittedly, I’ve got the cassette of his greatest hits (gasp!) – and it’s good, y’all. Great driving music. J, I liked your comment regarding the merits of calling it the "Postman Song" based upon the intro line only. To me, it is similar to the present-day group, the Fray, subtitling their hit "cable car" based upon a somewhat insignificant lyric. Great chart attack, J. Nuge. ;-)
January 5th, 2007 at 9:50 am
This only furthers my suspicion that, unlike that poseur Kevin Bacon, there are only *three* degrees of separation between Tommy Shaw and … anything.
January 5th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Kurt – Scary thing is, I remembered almost all of these songs. Usually, I have to do more research – this one was easy for me.
JT – I love that you have Stevie B’s greatest hits. :) I have only heard one Fray song, that interminable "How To Save A Life," which is played on EVERY RADIO STATION IN NEW YORK EVERY FIVE MINUTES.
– J. Nuge
January 5th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Awesome. I never realized I needed to have a copy of High Enough by Damn Yankees until just now. Also, you NEED to put Show Me The Way by Styx up in two months. It’s a DISASTER.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
woofpop representing the part of So. Fla. that doesn’t have the Stevie B. thing goin’ on – they didn’t play it on WSHE!! (although, maybe I missed something there..) This was so not a stellar time for music. Loved the link to the writing of ‘Tom’s Diner’, though’ – it’s nice to know that there are those so obsessed out there, isn’t it??
January 5th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I do remember “The First Time” being a hit around this time, when I was in 9th grade. And you’re right about this song and Tresvant’s “Sensitivity” being part of some Mellow R&B Gold subgenre, although you’re being generous when you use the word “gold.” I think I still have Tresvant’s “Do What I Gotta Do” on a tape of songs recorded off the radio in 1990 and ’91. Compared to Bobby Brown, Bell Biv Devoe, and Johnny Gill’s solo singles, Tresvant’s were the weakest of the New Edition bunch.
I didn’t like “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” in 9th grade, but just like “Miss You Much” and “Alright” and “Rhythm Nation” (and, to a lesser degree, “Escapade”), I love it now. “Black Cat” still doesn’t work for me, though.
Patton Oswalt has a bit on his “Feelin’ Kinda Patton” album about watching Metal Mania Weekend on VH1 and remembering how much he liked metal and hard-rock videos from the ’80s and ’90s in which the band members would rock so hard that they could change the physical properties of objects, e.g. blowing holes through walls or turning your Honda Civic into a Lamborghini. He then talks about the video for “High Enough,” in which the Damn Yankees have been cornered in a house because they’re dangerous (“There’s a 48-year-old guy from Styx in that house. Arrest him!”). Oswalt’s favorite part of the video is when the Nuge comes out on the porch and his guitar solo rocks so hard that it deflects the cops’ bullets. “Where were the ‘Beavis and Butt-head’ copycats when that video came out? … We could’ve lost the entire mullet haircut in one weekend.”
In 1999, when I read that “Because I Love You” was one of the top songs of 1990 in Entertainment Weekly’s “best of the decade” issue, I couldn’t believe it, mainly because I had no memory of that song, and I was listening to the radio a lot in 1990. Once I heard a clip of the song it sort of rang a bell, but I don’t remember it being on the radio that much. Maybe it wasn’t played as much on Georgia radio stations as it was in the rest of the country, but I doubt it. Sorry, Stevie B., your ballad didn’t work its way into my brain the way it should have.
One day in November of 1990 I was sick and stayed home from school. Luckily, it was the same day that the “Justify My Love” video debuted on the Jukebox Channel. It played over and over for what seemed like hours. I was home by myself, so I probably watched it 15 times in a row, trying to catch every little bit of “Is that what I think it is?” nudity that I could. Those were the days.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Friends, what woofpop is trying to say is that back in 1991, he (she?) was a rocker, not a rapper. (Memories of day camp color war teams…). If anyone doubts my statement that So.Fla. is proud of Stevie B, turn on Power 96 sometime this summer (if you are local, if not, I think they stream on the net), and you’ll hear Stevie B played with great joy by proud DJs.
January 5th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
*Around 1988, STEVIE B was huge in NYC!
*Nugent has gone on record on how much he hates that song.
*New Edition’s “Popcorn Love” and “Candy Girl” are pop gems! You should do something on their 80’s output.
January 5th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
JT, you’re totally right about the Stevie B. pride (and don’t forget Debbie Deb, either)!! Even if I didn’t love it at the time, Power 96 is a legendary station – and it’s still going strong nearly 20 years on.
January 6th, 2007 at 12:10 am
awesome, I’ve been waiting for those Damn Yankees to make an appearance. Thanks!
January 6th, 2007 at 9:31 am
I was doing adult-contemporary radio in 1991, playing a lot of these tunes over and over again (adult contemporary meaning we didn’t get to play the interesting records on this list, like "Tom’s Diner" or the Damn Yankees record) and I recall being mystified by just how Stevie B’s record got to be a hit in the first place, as there was absolutely nothing special about it. Of course, it stayed on our air for MONTHS. I am not sure I ever heard "I’m Your Baby Tonight" from start to finish–I’d usually leave the studio whenever it came on. And people say that the 70s sucked.
January 6th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Okay, so it looks like I’m not the only one who missed out on the Stevie B. phenomenon in late 1990. Was there a video for the song? I don’t remember one. “Total Recall,” a movie about a man who can’t remember his real past, came out in 1990. COINCIDENCE?!
January 6th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
Was there a video? Do you even need to ask?
January 6th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Bless you, Jason. I guess I completely blocked Stevie B. from my mind that year. Is that a gigantic early cell phone in the video at the 20-second mark? I think it is.
January 6th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
I, too, bought the "High Enough" cassingle. Nuge!
January 6th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Au contraire about Stevie B., my friend: His first hit was "I Wanna Be the One," a horrendous earworm in its own right. I know this because it was a big dance hit circa ’90-91, when I just started hitting the bars as a legal drunk.
January 6th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
"I Wanna Be The One" peaked at #32 (#39 dance). Popular earworm, I’m sure, but I still maintain he had only "one real smash hit." I choose my words carefully. :)
January 7th, 2007 at 12:10 am
Looking at Stevie B at allmusic.com, I’m astonished to see that he had a career! I remember “I Wanna Be the One” (which I love; a great freestyle dance track) and “The Postman Song” (a horrid earworm, yes), but I thought that was all he had…but 7 Top 40 singles from 1989-1995 (with “Spring Love” close to #8)–astonishing! He may be the only 7-hit one hit wonder.
Strangely, I thought the Madonna song was a bit later, like March or April…Jan ’91 was during my second semester in college and I completely lost track of Top 40. I’ve always found it a sad moment, as the end of Interesting Madonna…after that was Sex the Book, Erotica the woeful album, and a decade and a half of vapidly pursing dance-music trends while pretending she started them. This was the last single of hers I liked until “Beautiful Stranger,” which sounds like it would have been the best song from True Blue.
BTW, Chart Attack is the greatest music column on the internets. Thank you!
January 7th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I love that Wilson Phillips’ first three singles were titled “Hold On,” “Release Me,” and “Impulsive.” A little story arc, right there.
January 7th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
I always tied Stevie B’s "Postman Song" to its white-Corsican-twin, Timmy T’s "One More Try", both of which can be heard on the ultrasonic wavelength as the soundtrack of testosterone withering away.Madonna… yes, Madonna. This was the last time one could lust after the Material Middle Ager and not get that frightened, alienated look from the rest of the folks at the table. Grandma never really understood me, though.Wendy Wilson. I concur.The Nuge. Sure, it had to be this song that got him into the top ten and not "Wang Dang Pootie Tang" or "Wango Tango" or something else ridiculously juvenile and revolving around the weenus. Whatever. At least he got there, and that’s all that matters.By the bye, if you do Christopher Cross Mellow Gold, I’m never coming back – not because I’d be offended (nay!), but because I now kinda resemble the pudgy puddle of poo.Sincerely,Lord Bravery
January 8th, 2007 at 1:55 am
Fair enough. I’m still new here, trying to get the feel of things.Also, Lord Bravery: Hope you haven’t gone over to Jefito’s …
January 8th, 2007 at 8:26 am
..or for that matter, hope you didn’t see last week’s Mellow Gold.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Oh, I have. In bite sized portions, I can handle being caught between the moon and New York City. But a long, drawn out exploration of the man might hurt… a lot.I hope and pray Jefito never does the Cross Man. I’ve been waiting on both the ZZ Top and Squeeze Idiots Guides – Chrissy would shut down the works prematurely, and we can’t have that.Sincerely,I’m Still Trying To Find More Freakazoid References
January 8th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
You rock, J, for posting the video! How hilarious! I see Little Richard sans the heavy lip liner when I watch it…;-) (Squint – you’ll see it too.)
January 8th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
THAT’S where I saw the reference.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Lord Bravery: Too late. Jefito did.
January 8th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
1991 was a great year. I am glad that I was still young enough to have good music to enjoy when i was in high school and college. Can you imagine the kids that have gone through high school and college the past 10 years when a site like this reviews the music from that time…how depressing.
January 9th, 2007 at 10:05 am
Who knew there were so many Stevie B fans out there! Honestly, I don’t remember most of these songs because I was listening to all that grunge stuff of the early 90s.
January 9th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Dw Dunphy, behold your worst nightmare …http://jefitoblog.com/blog/?p=702
July 13th, 2007 at 9:56 am
[…] Jason did talk about the song in Chart Attack! #13. Py Korry: (Say this with a big smile on your face with a slow AC delivery) “Light rock, […]
December 30th, 2009 at 7:32 am
[…] already pretty much know these three tracks by heart, but his biggest hit was actually in 1990 with “Because I Love You (The Postman Song).†And I would absolutely use his #32 hit “I Wanna Be the One†as the song that defined the whole […]